Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

From an e-mail:

Great site. I hit it every day. The post (1/25/2003 Tony The Tiger Gets Tips At Laguna Seca) about Kurtis and Meiring reminded me of something I saw at a half mile back in the day.

I was there when:

Last corner last lap, Kenny Roberts and Gary Scott FIRE out of Turn 4 with Gary on the inside, just 3/4 of a bikelength ahead of Kenny, after a race-long ding-dong battle. Kenny reached over and grabbed Gary’s fender and pulled himself forward, killing Gary’s drive at the same time. Real dramatic. It was obvious that Kenny was going to literally pull himself past Gary for the win. All this while slithering towards the checkers on a dirt half mile. Just before they got actually pointed straight forward Kenny let go, and Gary took the checkered. Sure got the grandstand buzzing!

On the victory podium the announcer asked Kenny about it, and he said something like “Yeah I could have won it, but it wouldn’t have been very sporting to do it that way.”

Blew me away. I’ve been a Roberts fan ever since.

BTW, I still have the Camel Pro Series “Welcome Race Fans” banner I took down from a fence that day, hanging in my garage.

Keep up the good work,

Robert Baldwin
AFM #47-ret
Sebastopol, California